Police scale down search for rock fisherman who drowned trying to save his girlfriend

A rock fisherman who drowned trying to save his girlfriend is one of at least 10 anglers who have died in the past two years at the same area on the Central Coast.

Police on Sunday scaled down the search for a Chinese student, 20, who also jumped into the water to save the woman who was dragged into the water off the southern coast of Lake Macquarie on Friday night.

Tuggerah Lakes duty officer Inspector Chris Wellfare on Sunday night said it was considered unlikely the second man would have survived.

‘‘We’re going into a recovery and monitoring phase now,” he said.

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‘‘It was very dangerous today because of the weather. Today the Marine Area Command conducted a survivability exercise ... they found it was negligible he would have survived [in the water] taking into account all factors.

‘‘We haven’t been able to locate him on land and we’ve been very thorough.’’

Inspector Wellfare said patrols would continue on Monday.

On Saturday morning the woman who originally fell off the rocks watched in horror as the body of her partner Huiqing Hua, 25, was pulled from the water.

She cried and sat wrapped in a blue blanket with three others who had been there when the two Chinese nationals were washed out to sea off Wybung Head.

As she wept, up to 10 men were seen fishing off the rocks, without lifejackets, in the same spot where tragedy had struck the evening before.